For those clamoring to see more of the Dolphins’ young receivers, and for the young receivers who are yearning to play more, the opportunity arrives Sunday.

On Friday, the Dolphins ruled out starting receiver Davone Bess for Sunday’s game against Jacksonville because of a back injury that Bess said he sustained while trying to recover his own fumble in the third quarter of last week’s loss against San Francisco.

That means more playing time for Rishard Matthews and Marlon Moore and possibly Marcus Thigpen or newcomer Armon Binns. Coach Joe Philbin was noncommittal about whether he would play Binns, who was claimed this week off waivers from Cincinnati, but said he’s a fast learner.

Thigpen, who started the season at running back, has been practicing at receiver the past few weeks. He said that he, Moore and starter Brian Hartline got a lot of practice work in the slot the past three days in the absence of Bess,

This hurts big time. You can tell your receiver corps sucks when your slot receiver goes down and suddenly your looking at playing either your 7th round draft pick who has played predominantly special teams all year long, your special teams ace who has stone hands, or a guy whos been on the team less than a week. Hopefully the offensive line can step up and give us some type of run game because our passing attack is going to be hurting without Bess. You've got to feel bad for Tannehill in this situation. The man has only one legit receiver. Talk about throwing the kid to the lions. Hopefully someone will grap the spotlight and make the most of their opportunity.

If we want to run a four wideout set we have to use Binns. We've only got Hartline, Moore, Matthews, and Binns I believe on the roster. Unless of course you consider Thigpen a slot receiver (I'd personally use Bush in the slot and let Thomas and Miller split carries).

He's an undrafted free agent that our staff wanted to develop on the practice squad, nothing more, nothing less. While many of us were high on the kid's potential because of his size and familiarity with Sherman/Tannehill, it was a little premature and honestly the kid needs time to develop as a receiver. In college being 6'4" and 220lbs will allow you to get away with murder, but at the NFL level the corners will be right in your hip pocket so you have to be very solid in your technique. Fuller is a big receiver who needs time to develop. His not being on the active roster is more an indication of how raw he was technique wise coming out of college, it's not that he lacks the ability to catch the ball, or that he's some kind of failure like some would want you to believe.

Hartline was his usual self this week. Great at moving the chains, not so good at breaking tackles or finding the endzone. But yet again the man turns in a respectable performance.

Matthews did a good job of getting open and making some catches. Had Tannehill hit him in stride earlier in the game he would have had a huge play up the middle. He also did a good job of drawing a pass interference call. Overall I was happy with his performance. It's about what you'd expect from a number four receiver.

Moore made a couple good catches as well. But again, he's not really a legitimate target. He's only finding playing time right now because we're completely decimated at the position.

Binns I was surprised to see actually getting into the action a few times. While he didn't have any catches I can recall, he did draw a pass interference call. I think I saw him up the field making some blocks for our runningbacks as well. Good to see him get out there so early.

Today's game just highlights in my opinion what many have been saying for a while, which is we need our offensive line to be able to protect Tannehill with only five linemen (not a tightend, fullback, and runningback staying behind to block, and that our receiver group is terrible and Tannehill is carrying them. Tannehill hit eight different targets today. He put up a 123 quarterback rating with Anthony Fasano, Brian Hartline, and a few special teamers, that's impressive in my book, no matter who the opponent is.

On a side note I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that the offensive line did a good job even with a rookie left tackle, a rookie right guard, and a backup right tackle playing. We were able to run the ball effectively, and Tannehill seemed to have plenty of time the majority of the game.